Donald Trump crowns John Rich ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ winner

The country singer was named the Celebrity Apprentice winner during Sunday night's season finale, show kingpin Donald Trump citing Rich's consistency as a leader as the reason for his triumph. Rich walked away with an additional $250,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, bringing Rich's fundraising total for the hospital to more than $1.25 million.

Rich spent the first 45 minutes of the finale episode raking in even more money for St. Jude. Although the episode wasn’t a fundraiser, executives from The Melting Pot donated $25,000 and Dollar General kicked in $250,000 to surpass Rich’s original goal of raising $1 million.
As the show progressed, both teams faced stumbles in their three-part challenges. Marlee Matlin’s group questioned whether the star of their commercial was going to show up, and Rich miscalculated the entrance of rock band Def Leppard, the star of his live event. The band was still en route when he introduced them and to fill the space, Rich served as their opening act.

Donald Trump and NBC also used the finale episode to reunite the cast -- all of this season's Apprentice hopefuls (save Survivor alum Richard Hatch, who has returned to jail for ongoing tax issues) were in attendance for Sunday's episode, which also featured several highlight reels.

In the end, however, the biggest winners were the charities represented by the 16 celebrities on the show -- over the course of the season, the cast members raised more than $3 million for their chosen organizations' efforts.